Obituary: Goodman Hardware's Richard Singer

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Richard Singer, owner of Goodman’s Hardware in Fair Lawn, N.J., died on Nov. 13, according to an article in the Bergen Record.

Singer, age 60, was diagnosed with cancer in October. He was a second-generation hardware dealer. The store, which has been in the family for 40 years, has been closed, the newspaper reported. Mainardi Management Co., which manages the shopping center at Fair Lawn Avenue and Plaza Road, broke the news in a letter posted on Goodman's door.

Singer was known as a feisty defender of the independent hardware dealer. He kept a sign in his store window that said, “Thank you for not shopping at Home Depot.”

Twenty-one years ago, when a Bergen Record columnist wrote about a bad shopping experience in a large Rickel Home Center in Paramus, N.J., Singer wrote a letter to the editor saying, "Mr. Ahearn can find good times at his local hardware store. The service and knowledge are still there, as well as the merchandise in bins. Getting good service and not being insulted by waiting on long checkout lines may not make good cocktail-party conversation, but it will definitely make you think twice about running out to Route 17."